Alternative Origins

by TalkingToMyself

Chapter 33 - White noise

Author's Note:

This chapter takes place after the first Equestria Girls movie. Unless events are specifically mentioned in this chapter, everything that happened in between just happened as it did in the movie.

Crystal Note snapped awake and bolted upright in a fraction of a second. To be fair, she had not intended to fall asleep in the first place, but after another day of waiting, fatigue had taken over. Now however she heard sounds from the front door, someone struggling with the lock and voices. Multiple voices, which could only mean trouble.

Expecting the worst, Crystal Note sneaked out of her room, with a baseball bat in hand. She had never used it before and only bought it as a mean to defend Sunset and her home, and now the time had come it would be useful. She passed through the hallway in complete silence and darkness. She didn't need light to navigate her home, which would give her the advantage against the intruders. With her excellent hearing, she could make out at least four different voices, but that was not what had her suddenly hesitate. One of the voices was sobbing, maybe even crying, and it sounded too familiar to be a coincidence.

The creaking sound of the front door warned her that whoever was out there had finally managed to unlock it, and the sound of many feet got closer to the main living room, where Crystal Note was still hiding in the shadows. If those were burglars, they did a lousy job because they didn't even try to be sneaky. They also sounded very young. Maybe these weren't burglars, but teenagers trying to play a nasty prank instead.

That’s what Crystal Note would have thought, if it wasn’t for that sobbing voice that she now heard even clearer than before. There was no doubt about it. This was Sunset Shimmer. She heard some hushed voices that sounded like someone was trying to calm Sunset down. If they were the ones who had hurt her, they wouldn’t put in the effort to get her home. And that in conclusion meant they weren’t a threat.

Crystal Note wasn’t going to take any chances, however. She reached out for the switch and flipped the lights on without any warning. The teenage girls called out in surprise, but they all fell silent when she took a menacing step towards them, baseball bat still in hand and with a glare that could melt the Frozen North

“Who are you and what the fuck did you do to Sunset?”

The girls were too surprised to talk at first, so she got a good look at them. They were all around Sunset’s age and they were wearing prom dresses, which meant they were probably going to Sunset’s school. On first glance, they didn’t seem to fit together very well, but Crystal Note could see that there was some form of familiarity between them. Three of them were sufficiently intimidated by Crystal Note, but the two with pink hair still wouldn’t let go of Sunset’s arms as they supported her. The other two, a tall blonde and a shorter, more athletic girl with rainbow-coloured hair, took a moment of staring at her, before they simultaneously took a step forward to stand protectively in front of the others

“Who are you?”

It was the rainbow-haired girl that found her voice first. She tried to sound brave, but the way her eyes flicked between the baseball bat and Crystal Note’s eyes told something different.

Rather than getting an answer from Crystal Note, the fifth girl, a pale white with the most pompous dress, answered for her

“I believe she is Sunset Shimmer’s sister. I have seen her once, in passing.”

Crystal Note didn’t see how the others reacted to that, as her gaze was fixed on Sunset, now that there was enough light to see her. She didn’t wear a prom dress was the first thing she noticed, although that was the least surprising. She knew that Sunset had bigger plans than worrying about becoming prom queen (again). She was wearing a variation of her everyday clothes, including the black leather jacket the portal had given her when they first came to this world. The jacket, like the rest of her clothes, was tattered and ripped in multiple places. Sunset herself was battered as well, Crystal Note could see multiple bruises and small cuts, a nasty gash on her forehead, and where those burn marks? Sunset didn’t look up to meet anyone’s eyes, but her face was messy with tears that still ran down her cheeks. In fact, as the white girl had said ‘sister’, more tears leaked out and Sunset hunched over even more, and the sobbing grew worse. If it wasn’t for the two girls holding her arms, she’d probably fallen to the floor at this point.

Crystal Note had to force her eyes away from Sunset, from seeing her so utterly broken. Rage swelled inside her chest, a rage she hadn’t felt in years, and her glare intensified as she raised the baseball bat in an open threat

“What on earth did you do to Sunset?”

The rainbow one tensed up and got ready to fight back, but the blonde raised her hands defensively and spoke up now, with a thick country drawl but a calm voice

“Whoa now, let’s not do something y’all regret later. We didn’t mean to do any harm, but we couldn’t let Sunset crawl home all by her lonesome in her condition.”

The blonde held Crystal Note’s gaze, and she lowered the bat again. Her glare and her voice were still dripping in anger though

“And now she’s home, so you can all leave. Now!”

“But we…”

“Get lost! All of you!”

A new voice tuned in, and it sounded just as broken as Sunset looked like

“Please, no more! No more fighting!”

Crystal Note stared at Sunset, and she saw her shoulders tremble as the crying got worse now that she had collapsed on the couch. She felt her own glare fade as concern and worry took over

“You need to leave now.”

She wasn’t even looking at them, she was solely focused on Sunset, but she noticed them moving from the corner of her eyes. They were moving towards the door, which suited her just fine. However, Sunset spoke up again between all her sobbing

“Please don’t leave! Please… I’m sorry…”

The girls hesitated and looked at Crystal Note for a decision. They would argue if they were to be sent away again, and usually Crystal Note would make sure they’d know never to mess with her, but Sunset had asked her to stop fighting. She let out a deep sigh as she accepted that and put the baseball bat down for good this time.

Before the girls could get to relived by it, she glared at one of them and pointed to the door leading deeper into the apartment.

“You! First door on the right, first aid kit under the sink. Get it.”

The pink girl zoomed off without any complaint, and Crystal Note stepped towards Sunset, who had slumped on the couch with the white one and the one who hadn’t said a word yet. With another glare, she chased the white one off the couch, so she could sit next to Sunset and take hold of her hands. She noticed how Sunset’s fingers immediately clung on her, even if Sunset still wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes, not even hers.

“Sunset, we need to get that jacket off. You’re hurt, and I need to see how badly.”

Sunset shook her head and sobbed out fragments of sentences

“Don’t… don’t deserve this… I tried so hard and… all I did… but then… I never wanted this to happen! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

Crystal Note let her ramble a bit, but the way Sunset’s finger still clung on hers told her more than what she heard. She completely missed that the others were staring openly at her now, no doubt surprised how the menacing lady with the bat had turned into a caring big sister in a matter of seconds.

Crystal Note shook her head when she finally realized what Sunset was going on about

“Sunset… your plan didn’t work out, did it?”

She got a subtle shake of her head, but no explanation, so she continued

“Sunset, why didn’t you come to me sooner? I could have helped you.”

The girls now all stared at her, some in fear and disbelief, but also angry

“You would have helped her? All the rotten things she did, all the friendships she broke, including ours, and you’re just okay with it? And then she turns into a freaking she-demon tonight and…”

A sob from Sunset broke the girl’s rant and suddenly, she sounded all apologetic

“Whoa, sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

Crystal Note couldn’t care about some stupid teenage quarrel right now. As gently as possible, she took of Sunset’s jacket, only to reveal more bruises. She reached for the first aid kit, only to notice that the other girl on the couch had already gotten it. She was already cleaning some of Sunset’s cuts with antiseptic and she was mumbling to Sunset, so soft that Crystal Note hadn’t even heard her, but since Sunset wasn’t resisting, she let the girl continue. At least she seemed to know what she was doing, unlike the rest who just stared cluelessly.

With Sunset taken care of, at least for the moment, Crystal Note glared at them instead

“I want to know what happened tonight. I want to know how Sunset got hurt, and what role you all have to play in this.”

The girls looked at each other

“Well, to be fair, we’re not entirely sure either.”

“You see, when Sunset put on that crown, all hell broke loose, and then there was an army of zombie-students and then Sunset threw a fireball at us and suddenly, we all had magic and we kinda sorta blasted her with a giant rainbow magic laser.”

Crystal Note glared at the girl and shook her head

“That’s impossible. There is no magic in this world.”

The blonde one nodded

“We thought so too, but, you see, we met the princess a few days earlier and…”

“The princess! She’s involved in this, too? Isn’t it enough that she left us to rot here, now she has to follow us and hurt Sunset as well?”

The girls flinched back at the hatred that dripped from Crystal Note’s voice, but the white one obviously was more attentive than the others, because she was the one who figured it out first

“You’re from that other world too, aren’t you? How else could you know about magic and the princess.”

She looked from Crystal Note to Sunset and all the others did as well, their mouths hanging open as the truth sank in

“Sunset comes from that world as well, right? You’re both… you’re magic ponies? Like the princess?”

Crystal Note shook her head angrily, her eyes fixed on something the girls couldn’t see, and the hand that wasn’t holding Sunset’s hand balled into a fist

“Don’t you ever compare me to that selfish, arrogant, miserable excuse of a leader. She’s the reason we’re stuck here in the first place!”

The girls looked shocked between each other, but to Crystal Note’s surprise, somepony else spoke up to defend the princess

“It wasn’t her! She didn’t follow me and she didn’t… It was Princess Twilight who came after me! She came to get her crown back, after I stole it from her. Her crown brought magic to this world and when I tried to use it…”

As soon as she said that, Sunset Shimmer regressed back to sobbing and mumbling pointless apologies to the floor, so Crystal Note glared back at the girls

“What happened with that crown?”

The rainbow girl who had spoken earlier just crossed her arms in front of her chest, and now the blonde one spoke up again with her thick southern drawl

“Ah know it sounds unbelievable, but when Sunset put on the crown, she transformed. She grew in size and she had wings and a tail and… she turned into a demon. Ah don’t have a better word for it.”

The pink one perked up next and babbled out almost faster than Crystal Note could process it

“And then her eyes when all black and evil and her voice was all menacing and evil, and suddenly everyone had turned into a zombie and Sunset was all like ‘I want Equestria!’ and Twilight was like ‘No!’ and then she was like ‘I have magic and you have nothing!’ and then we were like ‘She has us!’ and then she was throwing a giant fireball at us and… and…”

The white one put a hand on the pink’s shoulder and took over explaining

“And suddenly, we were all engulfed in light, and we transformed as well. Only our transformation was different. Sunset’s transformation looked painful, but ours was most pleasant.”

At this point, rainbow hair took over again

“We didn’t really know what happened, but Twilight did, so we just followed her lead. There was this strange power building up and bam! We shot a giant laser at the demon and took her down. We blasted her so hard that when she landed, she left a huge crater in the ground, and it must have turned her back to normal as well.”

Crystal Note stood up then, letting go of Sunset’s hand to glare at them in full force once more

“You hurt her! You did this to her!”

The blonde one held her hands out defensively

“You have to understand, we had to do something to stop her! She had just destroyed the front of the school and she tried to kill us!”

“We didn’t mean to hurt her!”

Crystal Note turned around to look at the quiet one who had been treating Sunset’s injuries quietly until now

“Or at least, I didn’t want to hurt her. But she was hurting everyone else, and she was trying to hurt us too. We were just defending ourselves.”

The other girls nodded, but it did very little to appease Crystal Note

“I don’t care that you think you had a good reason. It doesn’t change the fact that you hurt her. Look at her! She’s bruised all over, while you don’t have a scratch. You just…”

“They didn’t hurt me! They saved me!”

The other girls didn’t say anything and left it to Sunset Shimmer to convince Crystal Note, who relented as soon as she spoke up. Pushing away her anger, she forced out a breath before she sat down next to Sunset again

“Saved you from what?”

Sunset still didn’t meet her eyes, but at least she kept talking this time

“From myself. When I put on the crown, it was all wrong. It hurt so much. I thought I would be getting my magic back, but it was too much. I was never meant to have it, and I couldn’t control it. And when I lost control, I did all these terrible things. I crushed the front wall like it was nothing. I used mind magic to control all of them, and when the princess stood up against me, I was gonna do it. If the girls wouldn’t have stepped in, I would have done it. I NEVER wanted to kill anyone, but I was so far gone, I couldn’t stop. They saved my before I could do something that could never be undone.”

Crystal Note was glad she was already sitting because she could feel her strength leave her as Sunset tried to explain what had happened to her. She grew pale, especially when mind magic was mentioned. The other girls didn’t look much better, they seemed floored by Sunset’s revelation just as much. Crystal Note suspected that Sunset had not been talking to them until now, so they probably didn’t know the whole story either.

“Can you tell us what happened, Sunset? You’ve been gone for three days.”

The girls looked up when Crystal Note said ‘us’ instead of ‘me’, and Crystal Note motioned for them to sit with a wave of her hand. The white one chose the armchair and the blonde girl took a chair from the dining table over towards the couch, but the pink and rainbow-haired girls seemed fine just squatting on the floor, despite the prom dresses they all wore.

Sunset didn’t notice any of this. Her eyes were set on the floor, but Crystal Note could tell she wasn’t seeing anything right now, as her mind’s eye replayed what had happened. She didn’t say anything for a while, until Crystal Note took hold of her hand again. At that point, more tears ran down Sunset’s face, and Crystal Note decided it would be safe to push Sunset into talking

“I guess the portal really did open on its own again.”

Sunset nodded, and finally started talking. Explaining the mirror portal was a good start, as it had nothing to do with her and only meant relating empirical facts.

“It opens for three days, every thirty moons. When I forced it open back then, that cycle reset, and three days ago, the time had come. I’ve known it would open, so I’ve been preparing for it. The minute it was open, I went back to Equestria.”

The girls were listening attentively, almost spellbound, but Crystal Note had to force her lips shut. Sunset Shimmer had decided to go alone and not tell her, so she had to have a good reason for it. For now, she just had to keep listening.

“I thought I was going to be back in Canterlot, but I was in a place I’d never seen before. I was a pony again, so I knew I had to be in Equestria, but everything else was unfamiliar, so I decided to look around. I used my magic to cloak myself and walked through a castle made of crystal.”

“A crystal castle? Oh my, what a gorgeous design. Imagine…”

The other girls shushed the white one, but Sunset had probably never even noticed, she just went on

“I ran into some guard ponies. They were wearing armour I’ve never seen before and with an unfamiliar insignia, so I thought maybe I’m not in Canterlot after all. Maybe the mirror had been moved. I had to find out more, so… I followed one of the guards. When he was alone, I… I neutralized him.”

“And by that, you mean…?”

The rainbow one was jumping to conclusions again, so Crystal Note shut her off quickly

“Probably just a slumber spell. Those are not dangerous but would make sure the guard wouldn’t be a threat for a while.”

Sunset finally looked up, and her eyes met Crystal Note’s for the first time this night

“How do you know?”

Sunset looked so honestly surprised that Crystal Note felt her lips curl into a smile

“It’s what I would have done in your place.”

A nod from Sunset followed, but she looked so guilty that Crystal Note didn’t need much of a leap to figure out what happened next

“And putting the guard to sleep had another advantage, since you could access his memories while he was sleeping.”

Sunset’s eyes fell down, confirming that’s exactly what happened. The girls perked up again, visibly distressed by the new information

“Wait, that’s something you can do? You can just read anybody’s mind when they’re sleeping?”

Sunset sighed deeply and shook her head

“Not like you think. It’s not telepathy, I can’t read minds or hear thoughts. I could access his surface-level memories by using mind magic.”

Crystal Note’s frown told the girls what she thought about mind magic, but the blonde one asked anyway

“I reckon this ‘mind magic’ is pretty bad stuff?”

Sunset shook her head

“It’s not bad by design. It can be beneficial. It’s very efficient for gathering information very quickly. But if it’s used without consent, like I did… it’s deeply invasive to anyone’s privacy.”

The girls shared a few looks and most of them shuddered at the implication

“I’m kinda glad that’s not a thing around here, then.”

“It’s not a thing in Equestria either. Most ponies don’t know about mind magic, or they just know it exists and not much more. But I’ve been the princess’ personal student and one of the most talented mages Equestria has ever seen, so I learned about it. The spell I used to gather information from that guard, I pretty much invented that one from scratch. And my teenage army of zombies? That was mind magic too. So powerful that I don’t think even Princess Twilight could do it, at least not without proper training.”

The girls looked at Crystal Note who nodded in confirmation

“Sunset Shimmer was famous and well respected in Canterlot and beyond.”

“Or rather, I was well feared. I had power and I did not hesitate to use it. Like I did with that guard. Or like I did with Princess Twilight…”

Sunset who never really had stopped crying, slumped down in herself again, but Crystal Note kept her on track, for Sunset’s sake as much as her own

“She’s the one who followed you here, right? Princess Twilight… so there really is a new princess? An alicorn princess?”

Sunset could only nod and sob more, and all the humans would contribute were more useless questions

“What’s an alicorn?”

Crystal Note impatiently waved her hand

“There’s no time for explaining you about ponies and races right now. Sunset, tell me, who is this Princess Twilight? You owe me at least that much.”

Sunset only deflated more into herself, as if Crystal Note’s reasoning had been a physical blow more than a verbal one, but all Crystal Note cared about right now was hearing what happened

“She is her student. Princess Celestia’s student. Her most faithful student. She did everything I couldn’t do, she has friends and she controls the most powerful of the Elements of Harmony. And she was made an alicorn princess.”

Crystal Note closed her eyes and forced herself to a few deep breaths. It would not help to get angry now, it would not help Sunset Shimmer right now, not until she got to the bottom of this.

Forcing herself to stay calm, she asked

“Is that what she told you? She could have been lying.”

The human girls opened her mouths to protest, but Sunset was faster than them

“I didn’t talk to her until I met her back in this world. But I saw everything.”

“But, how?”

Sunset Shimmer shook her head, but Crystal Note had to be relentless now

“Sunset, you have to tell me.”

Again, it almost seemed like Sunset wanted to refuse, but she couldn’t. Instead, she just whispered

“You’re going to hate me as well when you find out.”

“Sunset.”

All the girls look at Crystal Note by now, but she only had eyes for Sunset

“I’ve followed you to this world. I’ve been trapped here for almost three years, just like you. I chose you over everything else, even over the princess’ orders. Doesn’t that tell you everything you need to know?”

Sunset sobbed hard and Crystal Note could see the struggle on her face, but in the end, she won out. Defeated, Sunset continued

“I found another guard. A solar guard, one of Princess Celestia’s personal guards. I scanned his memories too, and I saw everything. How the Princess had taken Twilight Sparkle under her wing as a filly and taught her like no student before. I saw all their little tea parties, their walks in the gardens, how the princess would always make time for her precious little student. How she groomed her to become a princess, even though she never wanted to be a princess. She’s just so humble and so perfect and she never had to struggle for anything and I… and I… I never got the chance to show her…”

Any bitterness that had built up in Sunset’s voice just bled out at the last words, and not even the girls who didn’t know Sunset as well couldn’t help but feel troubled at least, especially when Sunset started sobbing again, worse than before.

Crystal Note, who knew everything, was boiling inside. Her anger was not directed at this Princess Twilight or at Sunset Shimmer for acting out. Because, she figured, that’s obviously what happened. She didn’t even have to ask about it. She knew Sunset well enough, and she knew that Sunset was too impulsive to not act out against the new princess. No, there was only one pony Crystal Note’s hate was directed at, and that pony would pay bitterly for it.

“So what did you do?”

One of the girls asked the next questions, and Crystal Note forced herself to listen, even if she didn’t care about the details. Sunset took longer to start talking about, like she was fighting back, but once more it was futile and the answers bubbled out of her

“I stole her crown, her Element of Harmony. I wanted to show Celestia that her priced student was a failure, I wanted to humiliate her. But she woke up, and she followed me here. She found all of you, and she defeated me. I only wanted to have my magic back, I didn’t want to turn into that… that thing. I didn’t want to enslave the whole school, but I did. I didn’t want to kill anyone, but I almost did. If Princess Twilight hadn’t stopped me… I was so lost, but she saved me. She forgave me, after everything I did to her. And now she’s gone and I… and I…”

The girls huddled back around Sunset who was crying piteously now, and none of the anger from before remained. Crystal Note could see that even though they were the ones who hurt her, they didn’t want to see her suffer. Most likely, they’ve been thrown into this situation, just like Sunset, and they could relate to her, in a different way than Crystal Note. Maybe it was for the best of Sunset that the girls hadn’t left.

Crystal Note tried to process all she just heard, but one thing still eluded her

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner? If the portal opened three days ago, why didn’t you come and get me? I could have helped. I could have done something for you.”

Sunset shook her head and sobbed into her hands

“I can’t tell you. Please don’t make me tell you.”

Crystal Note pushed back her anger as far as she could, so none of it would show in her voice, and repeated her promise from earlier

“Sunset, I don’t care what you did. I stood with you before and I will stay now. All I’ve done for the last three years I did for you.”

Slowly, Sunset lost the fight, and the truth forced its way out of her

“I didn’t tell you because… because… I thought you were more useful to me here, as a backup plan. And once I learned about Princess Twilight, I didn’t even think about you, at all. And that’s not even the worst!”

The five human girls were clearly taken aback by this revelation, and they voiced their petty complains

“Wow, I can’t believe you’d just let your friend hanging like that.

“I can’t believe you’ve never told her the truth, even once!”

“My word, Darling. To think you’d act out on petty selfishness…”

“That’s not a nice way to treat your sister.”

Crystal Note barked out a laugh that had the humans flinch altogether

“Don’t fool yourselves. We’re not sisters. We’re not even friends. From the first day we met, Sunset Shimmer was leading the way, and I would everything I could to be useful to her. You couldn’t possibly understand.”

Before any of the girls could interrupt her with their senseless babbling, Crystal Note pressed back on Sunset

“You said that wasn’t the worst. What was the worst?”

Sunset, utterly broken down and defenceless by now, didn’t even try fighting back this time

“That first guard I… interrogated. I didn’t recognize at first, but he wasn’t an earth pony, like I had first thought. I saw his eyes, and they were different. Like yours.”

Crystal Note, for the first time, was speechless, for a full minute

“Like mine? You mean… he was… he was…”

“He was a crystal pony. And that palace wasn’t even in Equestria. It was the palace in the Crystal Empire. The empire reappeared after we left, and Cadance saved it, together with Twilight Sparkle and her pet dragon. And Princess Cadance had the mirror move there, so when the portal opened…”

“You ended up in the Crystal Empire instead.”

Crystal Note stood up and started pacing up and down through the room, while the humans just watched. They didn’t understand what was happening, but they knew better than to interrupt right now

“It’s back! It’s back! I can’t believe it. What about the crystal ponies? Did they all reappear as well? Did you meet anypony?”

Sunset let her head hang down in shame

“I didn’t bother to find out more. Once I learned about Twilight Sparkle, I just focused on getting back at her.”

Crystal Note nodded, still pacing, and seemed almost giddy now

“I understand. But it doesn’t matter. You said the portal leads into the Crystal Empire now. We can just go there. We could go there right now!”

“No. No we can’t.”

Crystal Note span around and stared at Sunset, truly confused

“But, why not?”

This time, Sunset couldn’t answer. She broke into tears and sobbed out apologies, and slowly Crystal Note caught on. Everything she heard tonight slipped into place, and when it did, her face turned into a grimace of rage

“Three days. The portal is closed. We’re trapped again. We can’t go for three more years, but… you knew. YOU KNEW! You knew for THREE DAYS BUT YOU DIDN’T TELL ME!”

The girls huddled protectively around Sunset Shimmer when Crystal Note started yelling at her, all the anger she had tried to push away now bursting free like a volcano.

“You didn’t tell me! You just decided your petty revenge was more important than… that was my one chance to finally get home, but you… and then you… you attacked her! You tried to kill her! Even if the portal opens, even if it’s still in the Crystal Empire, we’ll be arrested if we ever… I can’t believe you did that to me. After everything I’ve done. For you! You! Didn’t! Tell! Me!”

Crystal Note screamed and ranted, but her anger just burnt out as quickly as it had built up, only to be replaced by sad sobs

“You promised. You promised we would get back home, and now we’re trapped again. What’s going to happen now? What’s going to happen to us?”

Sunset didn’t have an answer except more sobbing. The girls, thrown into this situation out of nowhere, couldn’t do anything either. They looked at each other for answers but found none. Princess Twilight had given them the task to look after Sunset Shimmer and be her friend, but nothing could have prepared them for this.

Applejack took everything she heard the hardest. She still struggled believing magic was true, despite having witnessed it herself just a few hours ago, but now it seemed like that nothing she thought she knew about Sunset Shimmer had been true. She was disgusted that Sunset would lie to everyone, even her own sister (no matter what this Crystal Note character said, to Applejack those two were sisters, even if only by circumstance). And now they weren’t even humans to begin with? In all honesty, Applejack didn’t know if she could keep her promise to Princess Twilight at this point.

Rainbow Dash was too overwhelmed to do much at this very moment. She didn’t know the first thing about building someone up who had buried herself so deep into trouble as Sunset Shimmer, but she had made a promise and she wouldn’t back out of it. Only problem was, now she had two Sunsets, basically, and they were something like aliens from another world. Somehow, they had managed to keep that fact hidden from everyone until now, but after what had happened at school, after everybody had seen Sunset’s transformation and the giant rainbow laser, there’d be questions. With the damage done to the school, the school board would get involved, probably even the police. Rainbow Dash was nobody to back out of any challenge, but this might be too big for even her. Loyal as she was, this was too much to deal with.

Rarity was floored. She hadn’t expected so much drama come out of this. At school, certainly, it was where Sunset Shimmer had made nothing but enemies for herself, and Rarity had already braced herself for guiding Sunset through some hard weeks of being bullied instead of being the bully. But it seemed that Sunset had not only burnt all her relationships at CHS, but also in her private life. If her sister, or rather her roommate, was anything to go by, Sunset would have to face a lot of anger from all directions. Rarity had promised to stay at Sunset’s side from now on, but as generous as she could be, there was a limit to how much she could give.

Pinkie Pie felt sick to her stomach, watching the two ponies-turned-humans cry. Out of all her friends, she was the one who could accept their Equestrian heritage without much of a problem, but that was just the tip of the iceberg of problems. She had suspected, or rather hoped, that Sunset had kept her nastiness at school and that her home-life was somewhat normal, but it was just as torn-apart as Sunset’s school life. On the surface, she was an ace-student with perfect grades and every teacher loved her, but behind that mask she was nothing but a meanie and a bully. Now, she was practically orphaned in this world, and not even her sister/friend/roommate liked her anymore. They were both overwhelmed by the severity of the situation, and Pinkie knew not even her tastiest party treats could cheer them up right now. Laughter was the best medicine, but it wasn’t the cure for just everything.

Fluttershy kept her arms around Sunset Shimmer as she cried, because it was the only thing she could do right now. Everything was falling apart for Sunset, and Fluttershy knew she couldn’t fix anything. She couldn’t fix the school, she couldn’t fix the magic portal and help Sunset get back home, she couldn’t fix her bad reputation and she couldn’t fix her fight with Crystal Note. Right now, she could only hold Sunset as she cried, and offer a little bit of comfort. It was only a small act of kindness, and she could only hope that it was enough.

“What’s going to happen to us now?”

Sunset kept crying without holding back, but she felt that compulsion building up inside her even as she tried to drown it in self-pity and sadness. Whatever else the Elements of Harmony had done to her by showing her all the terrible things she’d ever done, all the tears and the pain she caused, they had left something inside her. She never wanted to say all these things, at least not without explaining, but something forced her to spill everything, every ugly truth about herself. Not that she wanted to lie anymore, but she couldn’t even soften the blow or try to explain her reasoning, or even apologize. It was like she had to answer every question asked. It was kind of ironic that she had hurt so many people with her lies, and now she hurt them even more by speaking the truth, even though she never wanted to hurt anybody ever again.

“Principal Celestia is going to expel me from school, and then she will hand me over to the police. They will find out everything. We will end up in jail at best, or in some laboratory at worst where they press every little bit of information about Equestria out of us, by any means necessary.”

The five girls winced and flinched and the rainbow-haired one muttered something like “Dude, harsh!” under her breath, but Crystal Note couldn’t care less about what they thought. She wiped her eyes and focused back on the only one whose opinion did matter

“So what’s the plan?”

But Sunset only shook her head

“I don’t have a plan.”

Crystal Note continued to stare at her, and she felt that anger from before returning

“What do you mean, you don’t have a plan? I know you, Sunset Shimmer, and you always have a plan, and a backup-plan in case the first plan fails, and another contingency just to be sure.”

Only this time, Sunset’s head hung low, and she wouldn’t meet her eyes

“Not anymore. Any plans I had, they all fell apart when I turned into that thing. Now I don’t know what to do anymore.”

She sounded so broken, so helpless and sad, that those girls flocked around her once more in ill-guided compassion. Not Crystal Note though. Not after what she had just learned.

“I don’t believe that. You always have a plan, even if you don’t tell anyone. Is this what this is? What do you have to gain by not telling me?”

The blonde one spoke up on her behalf, quite angry herself it seemed

“She ain’t lying to you this time. Can’t you see? She can’t even look you in the eye because of how ashamed she is.”

Crystal Note fixed the girls with a glare

“You don’t know her like I do. Nopony does! Sunset Shimmer has always been lying to me. She’s always keeping things from me. Why should today be any different?”

Sunset’s eyes darted up, deeply afraid as she stared at her

“You knew…?”

Crystal Note forced out a breath, more like an angry hiss this time

“I’ve always known, Sunset Shimmer. I’ve known from the day we first met.”

Sunset stared, lost for words, as were the other girls

“I knew you were not honest with me, but I didn’t mind. I knew you had good reasons for why you wouldn’t tell me certain things. But now I know that was just a lie as well. You’ve broken every promise you’ve ever given to me.”

Desperate and in denial, Sunset shook her head and sent tears flying all directions

“I never meant to hurt you!”

“More lies! You forced yourself into my memories with mind magic! You lured me into this trap of a world with no way back! You told me my home and everything I knew was lost forever! And now, suddenly, you have a way back, and you saw my home, and you just didn’t tell me. Everything you did, you keep hurting those around you. Just for once, stop lying, Sunset Shimmer. Stop lying to yourself.”

Sunset dissolved into tears and fled into the embrace of those girls, who would end up getting hurt as well sooner before later, but Crystal Note could not face this fate anymore, at least not today. She glanced at them and saw tears, fear, disgust, anger. She couldn’t care.

“Stay if you want. It doesn’t matter. Not anymore.”

And with that, she turned around and left. Her feet carried her through the night, down a path she walked before, but she didn’t realize where she was going, until she found herself in a park she frequently visited. Nobody else was here at the moment, only the cold air of a fall night around her and unfamiliar stars over her. Fittingly, the moon was dim and waning this night, sharing no light with her as her thoughts burnt through her head. And even here she couldn’t find peace or darkness, as a few lamps illuminated the path with the harsh, electrical lights the humans favoured.

Not that it mattered anyway. This night, nothing could console her anger. She had decided to trust against better believe, and she had been burnt one too many times. She had done her best to keep up this charade, for the humans and for Sunset Shimmer, but tonight with every barrier broken, she was consumed by a flame of hatred and rage.

She screamed. She screamed so loud and shrill that any critter in the park fled in terror. She screamed so long that her throat burnt like liquid hellfire. Not that it mattered. Nobody was around to witness. Nobody saw the faint glow around her body, a clear turquoise light that matched the colour of her eyes. Nobody saw the faint outline of pony ears that shimmered on her head for a brief second. Her scream intensified as she tapped into her anger, and something else, and the lamps burst with a loud pop and an electrical hiss, finally plunging her in darkness.